


Solace in the Shadows

by breejah



Category: Legend (1985)
Genre: Creature Fic, Dark Fantasy, Dark Magic, Dream Sex, F/M, Magic, Monster Boyfriend, Oral Sex, Other, Rough Sex, Teratophilia, Wet Dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 06:23:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19312432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breejah/pseuds/breejah
Summary: The world of good and daylight has been saved, Darkness has been defeated. Back at her duties as Princess, Lily can't shake the events of that one night - dubbedthe event- that Jack tells her are mere nightmares and dreams, but she knows better. She's been changed from that night, forever, and she realizes she has no choice but to embrace those changes.Rated E for dark fantasy elements and explicit sex scenes. A "What if?” epilogue to the 1985 movie Legend.





	Solace in the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Watched this movie this week, obsessed over this fanfic idea until I broke down and wrote it out. Hope you like it! I always thought Darkness was romantic and kinda hot (I have a serious monster boyfriend problem, I know).

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Chimes - the dream always started with the chimes._

_They carried a faint sound, a tune of sadness and darkness, mating faintly with the wind that stirred between the large colonnades that she ran through, still reaching her ears no matter how fast her legs kicked and carried her away from the source._

_Soon after, the dress always found her - glittering and dark and draped in faceted jet beads and swathes of silk in the pitchest black. Every time she wept, the tears ending up transforming from despair to ecstasy and before she knew it, she was dancing, dancing…_

 

* * *

“Say _yes_ , Lily. Say yes?”

Jack leaned forward, trying to kiss her, but like so many times before, when his lips were so close she could inhale his own breath and make it her own, she couldn’t help but taste something else in her mouth suddenly - something that tasted like cinnamon and smelled like frankincense, dark mulled wine and poppy. Unable to help the reaction that followed - something in the very core of her body telling her _no,_ she mustn't let the taste in her mouth mingle with that of the young man in front of her - she grimaced, backing away, dismayed when she watched Jack’s features turn cloudy and agitated.

“Please, Jack, not today.”

“You said that _yesterday_ , and the day before _that_ , and the day before _that_ , Lily. _When_ can I kiss you? You offered so many times before--” He promptly fell quiet, cutting off what he’d been about to say, a stony expression suffusing his features as he roughly ran his fingers through his shoulder length dark hair and rolled away. Her own was curled and pinned and pressed _just so_ , like the good innocent Princess that she was.

There were days she wanted to tear apart her coiffed appearance - pull the pins from her hair, destroy the beautiful curls and the lovely silk dresses, exposing herself for what she became in her dreams - but just like every time the urge hit, she smothered it and simply sat there, uncomfortable in the tense silence that followed.

His response confused her, mixing with the guilt that continued to eat at her when she refused him each time. Ever since _the event_ \- he claimed it was just a nightmare, but she wasn’t stupid, she knew better - things had been different, especially for her. Jack was still mostly innocent and naive, but he was quickly becoming a man and had wanted to explore such things with her.

She didn’t know how to tell him that she already knew how that felt - the primal urges between a male and a female and how sweet it felt when flesh met flesh and turned that urge into an incandescent peak of pleasure so strong, it shattered a part of you each time, leaving you craving for more  - so she refused him over and over, hoping he would eventually stop asking, only he never did.

She watched him sigh and lean back, rolling onto his back and crushing bushels of wildflowers beneath his muscled frame. Before _the event,_ he’d been mostly gangly limbs and knobby legs, but now he was etched in slabs of sinew and sun-bronzed skin, teasing the powerfully handsome man he would become one day.

“I’m not ready, Jack. It’s the dreams, the ones I told you about. You said…” She started, her voice soft, only to be interrupted by his rough growl as he bristled beside her, pulling his hand away when she reached for him. She flinched, feeling his rejection like a slap across her face, but he didn’t notice, his eyes elsewhere, looking at an odd glimmer shining distantly in the forest. It would’ve struck her odd on any other day prior to _the event,_  but now she knew what it was - _sprite, fairy spirit._ A girl - or more accurately a female, it was never easy to tell a fairy’s age, no matter what their appearance looked like - and it hit her then why it was there. She suddenly felt saddened as much as she felt guilt, knowing that this fairy girl had taken a liking to Jack when they’d rescued her. Jack hadn’t told her this, of course, but she heard whispers on the wind when she came to visit him, about how her fickle mortal heart wasn’t good enough for Jack’s fiery spirit, only a _true fairy_ would be able to please him.

 _Maybe that’s what I should do,_ she thought, looking at Jack stewing in silence, plucking blades of long sweet grass from the tufts underneath their feet. _Free him  - from this fraudulent thing between us that is no longer bound by love, but lust, and weak lust at that._

“You should go to her,” she murmured, keeping her voice somber and subdued, so when he tensed and jerked his gaze her way, he knew she was serious. The surprise and sudden guilt that flickered in the depths of his eyes made her flush faintly - partly in anger, partly in humiliation, partly in something else. The implications there hit her like a ton of bricks all at once, nearly knocking the wind out of her lungs.  _So you know as much as I do what it feels like, I see. Did she show you everything, I wonder? Or does your guilt hold you back, like my own does me?_

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack started, but Lily shook her head and rose quickly, gathering her skirts. A panicked expression flickered across his face but the look on her own made him stop mid-reach, when he’d been about to grab her hand and pull her back into the den they’d made for themselves in the tall grass.

“This is goodbye, Jack,” Lily whispered, tears crushing her eyelids. “You care for her, you’ve made love to her, and I...I need to find out what those dreams mean, why they keep calling to me in the middle of the night. Let’s face it, our paths diverged a long time ago, when we went to where Darkness claims home.” Jack’s expression went laser sharp, even as the worry in his eyes blazed to full awareness, his jaw clenching, realizing she knew what _the event_ really was. “Goodbye, Jack.”

Not waiting for him to follow, she turned and took off running, her pride stinging a little bit when she didn’t hear him try to chase her down, the small chitter of a female fairy’s laughter carrying on the wind.

 

* * *

 

 _“I will never do anything for your pleasure. You_ **_disgust_ ** _me!”_

_He threw his head back and laughed, the etched length of his larynx working as he did so, making her swallow as her whole body lit up, turning to flame as his red skin reflected in the light of the roaring fireplace behind them._

_“Such lies out of such a pretty mouth,” he whispered, drawing his gaze back to her and stepping forward. His hooves made little sound in the chamber he held her in - his own - decadent and decaying all at once, rotted lace on the large canopied bed in the corner of the room, chandeliers dripping with glittering diamonds and putrid remains of long-dead candles. “It pleases me when you deny what you are. I always love a challenge, my dear. This is why I wanted you from the moment I saw you. There’s a storm inside you, my sweet, and I’ll have it as my own one day - and what a sweet, sweet prize your surrender will be for me.”_

**_“Never!”_ **

 

* * *

She woke up, panting and covered in sweat, the wet trail of tears showing on her face, tickling the hollow of her throat where they’d gathered there and stayed, as she stared at her pale, wan reflection in the mirror across the room in her bedchamber. It had been three months since her and Jack parted company, and unable to resist, she had paid her friends a visit that ran the little cottage in the woods, hoping to run by him. She didn’t desire Jack’s body, not anymore - not after what had happened - but was hurt nonetheless that he hadn’t come for her. In fact, the entire forest seemed changed, just an average forest, no mischief or magic readily felt, and she nearly cried when her friend and her woodcarver husband commented on it.

“It’s the damnedest thing, it is,” he murmured, looking out the window as she had sat at the table, his wife feeding her  - a Princess - part of the meals they made daily to feed their growing family, her friend’s stomach rounder and rounder each day. “Something’s amiss now in these woods, like the elves and the sprites and the gnomes moved on. Stuff still grows, you know, but it feels…”

“Different,” Lily whispered, finishing his train of thought for him when he went suddenly quiet and reflective. He glanced back at her and smiled, his wife nodding, making Lily nearly choke on her food. She murmured her apologies, made up some reason she had to be back at the castle, and had run out the door before they could say anything in reply.

 _All of this, everything that’s changed - it’s_ **_my fault._ ** _I’ve ruined everything._

Now, staring at her reflection, she sniffled and pulled her knees up to her chest, staring at her pitiful reflection in the mirror, feeling the aching hollow darkness in the center of herself, where light and innocence used to be.

 _Used to be,_ she thought bitterly, turning away from her reflection and looking out the window. _Ever since your pride got in the way of common sense and you touched that creature you had no right touching._

She rose, not bothering to call her handmaids in to warm the coals beneath her marbled baths, preferring the harsh brisk waters to wake her as she stripped and sank into the depths of the inlaid pool bisecting the other room in her suite, intending to wash away the sweat from the dream. She shuddered, ignoring the slickness between her legs, ashamed of what she dreamed of - and what pleasure inevitably followed them when she was lost to dark fantasies and the touch of a clawed red hand.

Shoving such thoughts away from her mind, she began to mechanically wash her body and scrub her skin with oils and ground up peach pits, knowing in a few short hours her father would be calling on her. She was of age and was expected to begin to cater to the suitors that were beginning to travel to the castle.

* * *

 

_“I see it, the seed born of what I am, darkness and dreams, germinating inside you. Deny it all you want, my sweet, but I see to the heart of it, and I want it - want you, and your heart.”_

_She shook her head rapidly, backpedaling in the chair he had finally convinced her to sit in, caging her in as his large muscled arms came forward and suddenly gripped the armrests, his face inches from hers, his large curled horns caging her in further. “Y-You’re wrong, it was an accident, an innocent gesture, I merely wanted to touch them, and I never planned to hurt them.” Even to her own ears, she was saddened at how weak her tone was. “I am_ **_good_** _,” she insisted, beginning to cry._

_He reached up with one of his hands, tracing the path of her tears down her cheeks with a surprisingly gentle touch. “You are not,” he murmured, even as she shook her head and reached up to shove his hand away, but he merely smiled, flashing fangs that both frightened and aroused her, when she realized what he had done - forced her to touch him. With his hand gripping hers, he refused to loosen his fingers, clutching her palm in his._

_“I am,” she protested weakly, listening to his hypnotic laughter echo in response to her strained words._

_“Tell me, then, sweet Princess, does an innocent steal food from poor cottage dwellers in the middle of a forest, when she has larders larger than that very cottage back home, at her castle? Does that sound like the actions of a sweet, innocent, good-intentioned girl to you? Does a sweet, innocent soul tear down their clothes lines, soil a hard day’s work and sneak into their house like a common thief?”_

_She opened her mouth, her eyes widening, wondering how he knew of such things. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t. She knew he was aware of her internal battle - and the slow loss of her convictions - by the look in his serpentine eyes, and she hated him for it. “Even as an innocent, you were prone to deviousness, my dear. Tell me, what other sign do you need to know you were destined to be_ **_mine?_** _"_

 _She shook her head, wanting to tell him that he was_ ** _wrong_** _,_ _she hadn’t meant it like that, it had been a_ ** _game_** _, but the look in his eyes had the objection drying up in her throat. Tears welled, spilling past her lids, as her heart stuttered and throbbed to awareness inside her chest -- knowing he was right._

_How did he even know of those moments? She thought he couldn’t abide the light. Frowning, she looked up angrily into his face, watching him stare at her in fascination and no small amount of desire, his nostrils flaring as his eyes shuttered to half-mast, lowering over the black exposing gown he’d conjured for her when she’d given into the pull of the dance._

_Suddenly, the lead goblin’s face from the trio - the ones that had taken down the stallion - conjured up in her mind’s eye. When he finally pulled himself out of the drugged blatant stare of her breasts and hips and sex - something she was dismayed to feel enticed her - he grinned, catching her furious look and nodding, loosening his other hand from the armrest it was anchored against, tracing her jaw and lips with his claws in a feather-light touch that warred with his harsh handsomeness. His other hand still held her own, tight and so warm, she felt an echoing fire burning along the skin of her palm._

_“You remember now, don’t you?” He asked her, tipping his head to the side, pulling her forward, until she hovered at the edge of the chair, so close to tipping forward into his lap. She trembled, her body wanting her to but her mind refusing to allow it, even as her eyes betrayed her and darted down, curious if he truly was half man, half bull._

_“You need only ask, my sweet, if you desire the answer to your question,” he said, making her stiffen and jerk back, struggling against his grip. He laughed again, her insides spurring at the sound, and she shuddered when he drew his claws down, tickling the space between her breasts, where her dress cleaved in half down her middle, leaving her breastbone exposed._

_She struggled to grapple for an excuse out of this. Jack would save her, she knew it down to the fiber of her bones, but that wasn’t what made her afraid - it was her desire to conjure up the question he had teased her about just mere moments ago, and what she’d do after he satisfied that curiosity. When he turned his wrist, trailing the back of his hand along the curve of her breast, a low growl escaped his throat when she felt her nipples peak beneath the thin gossamer fabric. She gasped and shrank back, blurting out the first thing that she could think of to stop him - or herself, she wasn't sure which was worse, his lust or her own. “Wait!”_

_He halted, his eyes narrowing, but he did stop when she asked him to. That action surprised her, touching her in an odd way. She panted, licking her lips, willing her own reactions to his touches down, and notched her chin up, remembering why she was here - why she had followed those goblins out of the woods of her home country, into this pit of hell, and the lap of the creature she was now poised to fall into. “I will….” she hesitated, glancing up into his face, watching sharp hunger flicker in the depths of his eyes when he began to hear her surrender, “I will be yours, agree to stay here with you, in this place…..but on one condition.”_

_“You have only but to wish for it, and it is yours,” he whispered, his large muscles rippling, ready to strike. Suddenly, he reached for the table at their side, bringing over a sparkling black rose, made of petals and cut gemstones. “I offer you this rose, my heart, my soul, my love. I have one dream now, when I used to have many. My dream, is an eternity...with you. Wish it, my love, and it is yours.”_

**_Think of the unicorn, and Jack, and your father, and your friends back at the cottage, frozen in time and ice. You have to fix this, Lily, no matter the cost._ **

_She took the rose, swallowing as she laid it in her lap, and smiled up at him, willing her features into a soft, pleased state. It wasn’t difficult, because as much as she was loathed to admit it, she was attracted to him in a fundamental way she couldn’t deny. The blush that rose to her cheeks, the way her breathing went from loose to tightly controlled bursts, wasn’t an act - it was real, her reactions to thinking what it would be like to bed this creature that proclaimed to love her, or how the potential corrupted innocence succumbing to him would taste like._

_“I want to be the one to kill the unicorn,” she whispered, knowing he would grant it. If she could just get close enough, she stood a chance to free the beast, and Jack would show and save her. Even if she died trying, she had to do it - she was the root of this weed that had been allowed to grow - and she owed it to the others to try and rip it away._

_He blinked, clearly not expecting that answer. Just as quickly, he drew his head back and laughed._

 

* * *

The next suitor was just like the last ten - arrogant, born to riches and used to thinking himself above the common man - making her forced smiles feel all that more brittle, closer and closer to exposing the truth underneath the varnished made-up mask her face had become. Whenever one tried to kiss her, cinnamon and frankincense and mulled wine flooded in at the base of her throat and nostrils, making her nauseated and bite back a gag. So far, no one had called her out on the way she violently protested the tentative kisses pressed on her by a few suitors so far, her father hastily explaining she was an only child and quite sheltered for most of her life when their startled reactions and subsequent frustration was felt throughout the rest of their visit. It was true, she was sheltered - her only friend being Jack from the woods - but she could no longer claim to be innocent, not after the events of _that_ day.

She forced down the reactive flinch when her father flashed her a subdued glare before smiling at the Prince who’d come to visit, clapping his hand against the young man’s shoulder and leading him out of the dining room, where she could be alone with her misery. She didn’t wait to be excused, picking up her skirts and quickly slipping from the room, running for her own.

Suddenly, the taste of what came with the tentative kisses was too strong for her, and she crashed to her knees, reaching for a metal basin when she slammed through the doors of her room. There, she retched, coughing up what little food she’d managed to eat during the evening meal. Trembling and wiping her chin, she reached for a towel, cleaning her lips and blotting her forehead where sweat had sprang up there.

She blinked, eyes widening, then lowered a shaking hand to her lower abdomen.

_No...it can’t be._

* * *

 

_She had hoped it was enough, watching him slowly lower his gaze to her once more, finally gripping her tightly enough she gasped and tumbled forward, resting in his lap, her knees pressed to either side of his hips, her black silk skirts riding up, exposing the creamy curves of her pale thighs._

_“As irresistible as your craving of bloodshed is to me, my darling, I am forlorn to admit I am still a male at heart. Let me kiss you, just once, and I will be able to taste the truth of your words.” His grip on the curve of her waist was strong, but not lecherous. He was aroused, that much was obvious, and she shuddered, able to tell that while his legs were hooved and furred, his maleness was - at least from what she could infer from touch alone - seemed mostly human, if not large. If anything, that aroused her body and her curiosity even more. She was repulsed by her crude interest, the shudder that followed the plume of heat in her belly born of disgust for her wantonness._

_“Just one kiss?” She hedged, glancing up at him with a frown._

_He nodded, his serpentine eyes glowing in the hollow planes of his face. She swallowed, pressing forward, feeling her heart beat a fast, staccato rhythm - like a hummingbird taking flight - inside her rib cage. She wanted this, allowing herself to give in for just a fraction of a second, and took his lips with hers._

_The harsh groan of his voice melted her insides further, and before she knew it, her arms were around his shoulders, gripping the back of his neck. He tasted_ ** _delicious_** _-_ _like mulled wine at a holiday dinner, and cinnamon and sugar that the cooks soaked plums in for dessert, and his sweat-slicked skin smelled like the exotic musky frankincense her mother used to love that arrived on ships from far away lands - and she wanted_ ** _more_** _._

_True to his word, she felt him begin to release her, seemingly satisfied with the unspoken answer her kiss had given him, but she shook her head softly and pressed her lips more firmly against his. He chuckled, tipping his head to the side and deepened the kiss, shocking her when she felt a forked tongue swipe the inside of her mouth. She gasped and he did it again, encouraging her to do the same, so she did. As her tongue mingled with his, she drew herself tighter to him, feeling his arousal pulse against her thinly covered mound, daring to make itself known, seeking entry. His claws bit into her skin, prickling along the rounded curve of her buttocks, and she couldn’t help but nudge closer._

_He pulled his lips away, canting his head back. “My darling, we must--stop,” he urged her, his grip so tight now she felt a small sting of pain where the tips of his claws punctured her skin. “Or else I fear I won’t be able to control myself much longer. I want you too much, but it must be... **your** choice.” _

_She wasn’t listening, too excited now, that drugging fire singing along her bones, ingrained in her blood, and she hurriedly reached down, tugging his belt loose. He hissed, the sound oddly reminiscent of a snake, his hands releasing her hips to grip her hands, stilling them from what she’d been doing. She glared up at him, watching raw hunger war for dominance on his face, his breathing ragged - tasting of desire, surrender, darkness, magic and corruption - and she wanted it._

_“My choice is to let you have me. All of me. Take it,” she whispered hastily, not even rationalizing what she was surrendering in that moment. In that instant, she didn’t care, she just craved._

_He hesitated for the blink of an eye, then he was shoving her forward, against the table, and his claws shredded her dress, his pants, his cloak, and he was suddenly_ **_there_ ** _\- moving inside her in hard, deep thrusts - the pain of her barrier rending to the force of his body's movements blending in with the pleasure,  until nothing but ecstasy remained._

 _“Join me, sweet, join me now and_ **_die_ ** _…._ **_with me_ ** _…”_

_She did, surrendering to the shattering peak that rippled through her when he suddenly stilled, plucking parts of her body that sent her soaring, screaming in agony and rapture as she felt the deep throbs of his own climax join her own, along with the hot splash of his seed inside her._

 

 

* * *

“Princess, I’m afraid it’s true,” her handmaid whispered, looking at Lily with concern as she quietly cried from the bathing pool adjoined to her bedroom suite. Thankfully, there were no suitors today, her father gone to a summit two Kingdoms away, Lily entrusted to her handmaids and the guards her father stocked the castle with. Across the room was an open leather bound journal, the moon cycles written delicately inside with bright indigo ink, beginning to blur and smear from where water began to weigh down and soak into the pages.

 _Two moon cycles,_ her thoughts ripped at her mind, making her swallow and cradle her knees closer to her chest, her eyes squeezing shut. _Two moon cycles and I never thought...it was_ **_one night_ ** _._ “It can’t be,” she whispered, shaking her head.

The handmaid sighed, forcing Lily’s eyes her way. She knew, as did Lily, that this would be disastrous for her and any alliance born of marriage her father so desperately wanted. They were a small kingdom, land-bound but rich in resources, and those resources alone had been an enticing enough dowry in its own right for other kingdoms to express interest in tying their sons through marriage by winning her hand. Her father would get what he wanted, an allied kingdom with a sea port, and the other kingdom would expand the lands in which they would rule once her father passed, and she would have served her kingdom in the way Princesses were expected to - by bartering the only thing she had, her own body.

Now, that was ruined. She was with child, and even as the handmaid wracked her mind to think on what male servant had swindled her into bed, she knew the answer was far, far worse.

Her child’s father wouldn’t be found in a castle - at least not a mortal one, walking the realms of men, in bright sunlight. No, her child’s father was bred from something much darker, something altogether not human.

“We’ll keep this to ourselves for now, and I’ll--I’ll write the King, telling them you wish to visit your little cottage friends, since its been many months since you last saw them, and we’ll decide what to do about the babe,” the handmaid whispered, nodding more to herself than to Lily, rising.

Lily blanched, thinking of her friends, and what could come of them if _he_ learned this news. Springing from the bath, splashing the handmaid with water as she grasped her hand in a death grip, she shook her head wildly, not caring if she appeared half mad. The woman would most likely blame it on hormones anyways.

”No!” She lowered her voice, startled to hear her screamed reply echoing off the stone walls, but when no guards came running inside to see what was amiss, she continued hastily. “No cottage visit. Surely…” She shook her head wildly, then thought of something she hadn’t visited since she was a child, before her mother had died. “What of the small stone estate my mother used to take me to in the summer months? By the lake? That is isolated enough, isn’t it?”

The handmaid narrowed her eyes, a contemplative look entering her gaze, and Lily suddenly feared her outburst would make the woman assume the worst - that her friend’s husband was responsible for the babe in her stomach. “It wasn’t him, Abby,” she whispered, releasing her hand and wrapping it around the wet chemise that clung coldly to her skin, hating how she lied. “It was...a man on the road..when I went to visit her. I haven’t seen him since that night.” At least that part wasn’t the lie, unless she counted her dreams where he came to her, took her over and over, reminding her what that singular night had felt like.

Abby pressed a hand to her mouth, sudden sympathy and heartache flooding her eyes. “Oh, you poor thing, such an innocent girl, taken in such a horrible way.” Lily kept her mouth shut, even as she shuddered, remembering it was not against her will that had caused the resulting babe growing now in her womb, but lust and surrender, to a creature not even closely resembling a man. The woman took her trembles as ones born of fear and reached for a thick cloth to dry her, gently plying her with words to strip off the wet chemise so she could dry her hair by the fire in her bed chambers.

“Your father will only see fault with you in this,” she began, as she blotted Lily’s dripping locks, beginning to comb the nest her curls had tangled into when she had bolted into the bath, trying to escape what she realized was true, after she’d been sick shortly following breakfast for the fourth day in a row. “So we must go tonight and make haste and send word after, when he’s too involved in the negotiations at the summit to flock home quickly. By then, autumn will have set in and slow him down further. With you being three moons past your menses, the timing will be close, but….we can make it work, rush the babe if we have to.”

Lily shuddered again, curling her fingers over her still flat abdomen. Abby had shaken her head when Lily asked her earlier in the bath how to get rid of a babe, telling her the time for that had passed, the dangers now to her own health being too risky. Even as she had sighed, appearing sad, some part of her rebelled violently at the thought. As much as this child wasn’t human, at least a small part of it was - the part of it that came from her. She loved this child, regardless of the circumstances of its making, and she didn’t want it to be purged from her like some unwanted rash.

 _This is_ **_my_ ** _child,_ she thought, glancing to Abby at her side, as the older woman braided her hair, _no one will take it from me. Not now, not ever._ As her fingers trailed over that part of herself, where it resided inside her, she fought back a smile.

Darkness had been untamed, slightly wild in his crushing rush to satisfy his lust and bring them both to satiation, but he had never been cruel or unkind - not to her, at least. Now, she carried a part of him inside her, and the sudden thought that he wouldn’t be there to meet his child saddened her. She had been there, she had witnessed his death as much as the others had, and it pained her to realize she missed him. If he treated their child as reverently as he had her that single night, her babe would want for nothing, even if its father was a creature born of night.

“Lily, are you listening?” Abby asked, her voice sounding exasperated. Apparently, she’d repeated her instructions a few times and Lily had been too lost to her thoughts to hear them. She flushed, looking up at the handmaid, watching the woman’s harsh expression ease into soft kindness. “I said, sleep now. I’ll pack your bags and we ride at first light.”

“Yes, mistress,” she murmured, slipping into bed as the woman directed. As she looked back at her as she opened the door, Lily offered her a faint smile that the woman must have interpreted as worry. “Don’t fret, Princess Lily. We will make it through this.”

As she settled back into bed and closed her eyes, she wondered why the woman chose then to suddenly lie.

* * *

 

_“Seeing you now, in my arms, rooted in my heart, your body wrapped around mine, I can tell the truth of it. You are carrying my child, Lily.”_

_Since the dreams had started once she had returned to her normal life, he had called her Lily, not beloved or sweet or darling. She hated to say it bothered her, but it did. When he came to her room, through dreams draped in shadow and silence, he hadn’t spoken much, just parted her legs and taken her like the beast he claimed to be._

_She sighed, still resting astride him, his cock still half-mast and resting inside her. That little exhale of admission had him stirring again, rising swiftly with his renewed lust, from where he was buried inside her. He pressed her up, instructed her without words to ride him, and she - unable to resist - did so, moving her hips in a slow, erotic dance._

_Cupping her breasts, he smiled, his heated gaze one of pleasure, as he lapped at her nipples with his dark forked tongue. “You’re happy you’re with child,_ **_my_ ** _child, and yet also sad. Sad that I am not there with you, to relish what our union brought forth.”_

_“You’re dead,” she whispered, rocking her hips, unable to stop the soft litany of moans that bubbled past her lips. “Of course I’m sad, I’ll raise this child alone.”_

_“You would not try to rid yourself of it?”_

_She blinked, her eyes opening as she rocked atop him, slowing just enough to meet his gaze, from where it had torn away from fierce concentration on her breasts. His tongue still pleasured her, her body squeezing around his cock in response, and he grinned when the slippery remnants of their previous climax melted around where they were joined, further sealing them._

_“No,” she admitted. “I would not.”_

_“Why?” He asked, drawing his attention back to her breasts, his tongue making quick work of her nipples, his thumbs and claws circling the hardened nubs, so sensitive now that he had teased them to aching points._

_“Because…” She frowned, closing her eyes and rocking her hips faster, wanting to get lost in the sensations of how he felt inside her, how their bodies felt coming together, reaching again for that plateau only he could grant her. Suddenly, his hands were off her breasts, holding her hips firmly in their grasp, slowing her climb towards the peak she wanted._

_“_ **_Tell me, Lily_ ** _,” He rasped, his expression harsh, telling her her was as close as she was. He still wouldn’t let her move, and she swore she could see something in the depths of those orange slit irises - something that was wild, vulnerable, and ran deep - like love. “Because_ **_why_ ** _?”_

 _Suddenly, she sobbed, furious and afraid, slamming one of her fists against his chest. He growled, his eyes growing heated, his cock twitching inside her, telling her the strike aroused him more than angered or hurt him, but she couldn’t stop, doing it again. “How do I know you really love me and not just the temptation I continue to be? Innocence perverted, wrought on by you?_ **_How?!_ ** _”_

 _He took that moment to roll atop her, thrusting so hard and fast it bordered on painful, just enough discomfort in the raw taking of her body to hold her back from orgasm. He pressed his head close, his large curled black horns caging her head against the silk pillows beneath her, his scent filling her nose, his breathe reminding her of his taste. “I visit you now, in your dreams, long after I stole that from you, Princess - as you would say - despite you being the one who allowed it._ **_Your choice,_ ** _remember? That day, when I spilled inside you and rotted the vine of innocence from your heart all the way to the root, you asked for it. Don’t ever forget that, Lily. You_ **_asked_ ** _for it.”_

 _She wanted to scream, but refused to, instead leaning up and biting him, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. He roared, fucking her harder, making her mewl in pleasure, now that the pain had faded and she’d grown used to this rough treatment, her body poised to explode. Suddenly, she could feel him coming - thick hot spurts of it inside her, spilling out of her as he continued to thrust, hurtling her over the edge as well - and he hoarsely muttered in her ear when she was able to make sense of things once more. ”What_ **_else_ ** _is there left that I desire from you, then, if not your love?”_

_She gasped, tears welling in her eyes, but before she could say the words back, the dream was broken, and she woke up._

 

* * *

The small entourage of household staff Abby had gathered to protect and accompany her to her mother’s decaying estate had met them at the castle steps at dawn, like she’d predicted. Lily hadn’t had the fortitude to meet anyone’s gaze, slipping into the small round litter - meant for simple day trips to the neighboring townships - and stayed there, even when they stopped and broke for meals.

She slept during the long hours it took to get to the estate, Darkness still haunting her dreams. He coaxed her with honeyed words, the movement of his body, the promise that he would love and cherish her forever if she but wished for his return. She had laughed at that, but he reminded her the seriousness of wishes and the magic they held. She looked around them, gesturing, asking him how she was to know if any of this was real. He smiled, tugged her close, pressing his aroused body against hers - always aroused, always in need of her - and reminded her what he’d said to her the day they had met, amongst all the other words that had been shared.

_Dreams are my specialty. Through dreams, I influence mankind. My dream, is an eternity...with you. You wanted me, bound my spirit to yours, so even when I was cast into the void, part of me remained. It grows stronger now, like our child, and the spark that would allow me to fully return is but a mere wish from a mortal girl, with darkness and light warring in her heart._

She had trembled, feeling tears run down her cheeks as she stared at him. _How do I know you won’t come after the unicorns again? Try and cast the world once more into perpetual darkness? I can’t risk that. Not even for you._

He had smiled, his fangs gleaming, as he cupped her cheeks, brushing away her tears, then lowered his eyes to her belly. It was still flat, but she felt their child stir there, a soft flutter, enough to let her know it was going to be powerful and something wholly new to the world - a creature of light and darkness.

 _Because of him, our son._ Her eyes had widened and his smiled deepened further. _I was misguided, thinking I had to rule the plane of men with perpetual darkness. One cannot exist without the other, that is the way of things now. I understand that, my father understands that. What is light without darkness? We are mates, you and I. Jack cast me out, yes, but_ **_you_ ** _can bring me back, rule alongside me in my realm of darkness, and our child -- our child can carry on the marriage my father and your mother need in order to survive. Part sunlight, part darkness, a balance of both, and he will be….a miraculous thing._

She shuddered, looking up into his eyes. _And you will not war with those who dwell in the light?_

_No, I will not, and I will stop any of my kind who would try. Wish for me, Lily. Wish me back._

A knock against the litter door jolted Lily out of her thoughts. She hadn’t realized they had stopped and straightened her skirts, patting down her hair and sitting up straighter in her seat. Suddenly, the door swung open and Abby smiled, looking over her shoulder, drawing Lily’s gaze with the action. There, across the courtyard, was her mother’s estate. Her father must have hired someone to tend the house grounds, because the estate was merely shabby, not completely derelict.

Taking a coachman’s hand, she allowed herself to be helped down the small steps to the pebbled driveway, then smiled her first genuine smile at Abby as she moved towards the estate’s front doors, a small staff of three already standing outside, bowing faintly to her as she passed. Even knowing it was rude, she ignored them, running for the stairs that led to the balcony lining the back gardens, memories of her mother reblooming in the back of her mind.

She grinned as she finally made it to the double doors that overlooked the roses her mother had loved, shoving them open to find them still there and still in bloom, even as late in the summer as it was.

A soft feminine chuckle had her smiling over her shoulder, seeing Abby standing there and shaking her head, a few footmen carrying her trunks to a room at the end of the hall. “Don’t dally long. I’ll have a bath prepared for you soon enough and we need to ready you for bed. Dusk is coming soon and it’s been a long trip here and the tubs here aren’t heated like the pool you’re used to at the castle.”

Lily nodded, looking back at the roses and smiling.

* * *

 

_“Have you decided, Princess?”_

_She turned, glancing around at the unusual room she found herself in with him, the bedchambers at the estate so different than the ones she’d been used to back in the castle. He sat on the bed, his chest deliciously naked, sheets cast over his furred thighs and hooves, his sex outlined underneath the cloth. Her eyes lowered and she watched it twitch, then begin to rise, arousing a sudden need in her to snatch back the sheets, watch it fill to its fully potential - slick and hairless despite the tufts of fur that laced up either side of his well-muscled thighs, only skirting around his shaft and the heavy sac beneath - and take it in her mouth._

_“As tempting as that would be, my sweet, I need your answer. Will you wish for me, my love? Do you love me, as I have proven I love you? I have never taken you by force - not once - and have treated you like the Queen you should be, not some auctioned whore for lands or ports or ships. What I want is far more precious.”_

_She forced her gaze back to his face, even as she stripped off her chemise and stepped towards him. “I haven’t made up my mind. Give me one more night to decide.”_

_His expression looked pained, forlorn and lonely, so when she was close enough, she did what she’d been wanting to do earlier, kneeling, casting off the sheet, and gripping his balls and taking his cock inside her mouth. He growled, his large palms gripping the back of her head, the large claws adorning each fingertip scraping against her neck, and guided her, arching upwards with each downward swipe of her head and tongue._

_“I desire you unlike anything I have ever craved before,” he rasped, groaning, his cock throbbing against her tongue, telling her he was close to orgasm. “What have you done to me? I don’t recognize what I’ve become, why I want you so much. For you and only you, would I live in peace with the light that could kill me. I... **love**...you….” _

_Just as those words left his mouth, he was roaring, tunneling his cock deep, and spurting inside her mouth. His seed was salty, slightly sweet, and tasted of cinnamon and cloves and dark magic, just like him._

**_I love you too,_ ** _she realized in her thoughts, as she watched rapture twist his features into something beautifully frightening._ **_One more day, my love. Just give me one more day._ **

 

* * *

The cook jumped, clutching a hand to her generous bosom, when she saw Lily sitting at the raw wooden counter in the bowels of the estate kitchens, sipping a cup of hot ginger tea. “Your Grace, you startled me. What are you doing up so early?”

“Thinking,” Lily murmured, not moving her gaze away from the herb garden she could spy through the window, lined by pretty red brick by the large stables in the distance.

The cook merely to work, asking Lily what she preferred for breakfast. That time, Lily did look back, and the cook met her eyes evenly, and Lily realized then the cook knew of her condition, asking if she could keep down plain toast. “Rich foods are bad in the beginning, my lady,” the cook murmured, holding her gaze through the soft words she spoke. Lily felt her cheeks heat, about to rise from her chair, when the cook smiled and patted her hand that held the cup of tea. “This house is loyal, my lady, to the memory of your mother and to you. No one will speak a word of it, nor come forward, unless they need to.”

She smiled, thanked her for her loyalty, and admitted she could tolerate toast without butter. The cook nodded, reaching for some plain coarse wheat loafs by the stove, intending to shave her off a few thin slices.

Lily resumed her watch of the herb gardens and the bees and butterflies that feasted on the plants there. She thought of the letter, and what it said, up in her room. She didn’t have long until the chamber maids found it, thinking over what it said.

Part of it was to her father, part of it to Jack, part of it for herself. She let the truth fly free - most of it, at least. She was keeping the babe, leaving the country and castle life behind, and no one should try to follow her. Where she was going, no one but elves and fairies and sprites knew how to get to, anyways, and those mortals that knew wouldn’t venture there without cause.

Standing, she told the cook she’d be outside, setting aside her cup and reaching for the door.

Glancing up, looking at the sun one last time, she closed her eyes and wished.

_I wish…_

Suddenly, everything went dark.

 

* * *

**One Year Later**

The marriage had been like the pagan worshipers of old, that her father’s great great grandfather had ushered out of their kingdom long ago. Drinking, fighting, coupling, killing - it was all allowed as long as it was done in Darkness’ name, or that of his newly crowned Queen, Lily. Once again, he'd proven true to his word, not warring with the mortals and magical creatures of daylight, stopping any others of his kind who would dare to try, having quickly regained his lost throne once he had returned.

Glancing down, she looked at the twisted spiraled pattern of her mating mark, identical to the one that had formed over Darkness’ heart, when they had formally mated after they recited vows so dark and twisted, it had hurt her ears to speak them. She hadn’t known what she said, in a language she could barely pronounce let alone understand, but she knew he would never harm her intentionally and had said them all the same. Now that she was theirs - the Queen of Darkness and the dark things that ruled the night - seated with  him in their underground realm of shadow and darkness, the quickening of her pregnancy had startled her.

Once he was born, though, time slowed. He wasn’t quite as strong as his father, but still very much immortal - like Darkness and now like Lily, when he had bound her soul to his own. Her son was still a wee babe and would be for a considerable time, according to her husband. Looking down at him, she felt crushed under the weight of her love for such a perfect little thing - dark curly hair like her own, pale mauve skin, serpentine orange eyes, and little curled horns of the darkest onyx that glittered like dragon glass. A perfect marriage of light and darkness, his magic an odd thing - benign in a way, neither evil nor good, but a mixture of both.

Darkness’ needs for her hadn’t abated, and probably never would. She worried over becoming pregnant again and he laughed when she admitted as much, telling her that now it was a matter of simply wishing for another child, and she suddenly glared at him, wondering if he’d cheated her back during their first time together.

He chuckled, shaking his head, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, glancing down at their son she held. She looked as well, smiling and tucking a curl behind one faintly pointed ear. He squirmed, his face a portrait of childlike beauty, and fell quickly back to sleep. “You were mortal then, my love. It was only a matter of your choice, much like a wish, the surrender of your will allowing him to be conceived. I would have wished myself, if I could, but it had to be you. Don’t you see now, my love, what power you have - over me and my kingdom? Your wishes, mingled with the darkness, fuel this place, and soon, our son will strengthen it even further, and even your cursed lands of light, being part mortal himself.” He suddenly hesitated, his voice turning soft. “Do you regret it?”

She glanced up at him, watching that vulnerability she only witnessed a few times in their past come forward. He still was worried she wished for her old life back, smiling and putting him at ease. “No, never. I love you...and our son. It’s more than I ever had hoped for.”

He lowered his head, kissing her, mindful of their son between them in her grip. The first few months here had been hard on her, not because of him or his people - they had, in their own dark, crudish ways, treated her as reverently as they did their Lord - but because she was so forgotten by her father, her people, even Jack. No one had asked for her, searched for her, even when she had ways of spying on their world now, like Darkness had done when he’d had his minions take the unicorn’s seal of power. He had soothed her in the only way he knew how, feasting to her beauty in his dark halls, making endless love to her at night, worshipping her changing body and speaking to their child in words she was only beginning to understand.

“Truly?” He whispered, pulling back and asking one of the nursemaids to take their son and bed him down for the night. As soon as they were alone, he wasted no time in stripping themselves bare, carrying her to the large bed she remembered from her first time here. Nothing had changed, except only to grow fonder to her.

“Truly,” she whispered, guiding him inside her. "I love you, my King. Make love to me." Together, they moved, peaking together, loving the sounds he made when he lost himself to his passions, and nipped at his chin for him to do it again. One of the blessed things she had discovered at marrying the Lord of Darkness was that he was never without stamina when it came to her desires.

“How long tonight, my love?” He asked, as he began to thrust once more, still hard inside her.

“Until I fall asleep from exhaustion and forget my own name,” she whispered back, moaning loud and giving in thoroughly like she had since their marriage - and even before, if she was honest, since those dreams she had when she was back home, in the land of daylight.

He kept his promise, exhausting her. Just as she fell asleep, she smiled to herself.

_Sometimes, it takes Darkness to remind you of the light in your life. If this is what it took to do so, then I am content._

 


End file.
